Karlsburg Castle (Western Pomerania)
The Charles Castle in the town of Alba Iulia in part of the country Vorpommern of the state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern is a 1731 as a three-story brick building built mansion in the style of the Baroque . It was owned by the von Bismarck-Bohlen family until 1945 and was then part of the Karlsburg-based Central Institute for Diabetes until 1990 . Since then it has belonged to the state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and is administered by the University of Greifswald . The castle, which is used jointly by the successor institutions of the central institute, is both a landmark of the town of Karlsburg and of the local medical and scientific institutions.
History of the castle
The von Bohlen family (1731 to 1828)
The Gnatzkow estate near Greifswald had belonged to the von Normann family, who lived on the island of Rügen and the West Pomeranian mainland , since the end of the 16th century . In 1679, through marriage to the last heiress of the line Maria Lucretia von Normann, it was inherited by the von Bohlen family, who also lived on Rügen . On the initiative of Carl Heinrich Behrend Reichsgraf von Bohlen (1705–1757), construction of the palace began in 1731. Just one year after construction began, a fire on August 24, 1732 destroyed the unfinished building and the entire village. As a result, in addition to the castle, the village was rebuilt according to the architectural and urban planning ideas of the Baroque . The first premises were occupied as early as 1733, and the main parts of the palace had been completed by 1739. On September 11, 1745, Carl Heinrich Behrend von Bohlen was raised to the rank of imperial count .
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From 1750 he was one on the back of the castle park in the French style to create. In addition to a pond with a small island that gives the impression of a moth , this park also features a marble statue of the goddess Flora from the 18th century. The cost of building the palace later brought Carl Heinrich into such great financial difficulties that his eldest son, Count Carl Julius Bernhard Reichsgraf von Bohlen (1738–1813), bought the unfinished estate from the bankruptcy estate after his father's death in 1757. He no longer had a west wing with a gallery planned by his father. In 1773 the castle was finally completed.
On July 30, 1744, Luise Ulrike von Prussia , a sister of Frederick the Great , was received by the Swedish court for celebrations after her marriage to the Swedish Crown Prince in Gnatzkow Castle. In 1771 her son Gustav III stayed overnight . on the return trip from Paris to Sweden in the castle after his father died on February 12, 1771. In memory of this visit, the place was renamed after the baptismal name of its owner Carl von Bohlen in Carlsburg, in today's spelling Karlsburg.
In the period that followed, the property fell into disrepair due to the frequent absence of its owner, who also increasingly fell into debt. From around 1800, in addition to various expansions, based on plans by Peter Joseph Lenné, the palace park was transformed into an English landscape park . In 1809, Friedrich Ludwig Wilhelm Reichsgraf von Bohlen (1760–1828), the last male descendant of the von Bohlen family, took over the estate at the request of his father's creditors in order to prevent bankruptcy. He succeeded in decisively improving the estate's economic situation.
The Counts of Bismarck-Bohlen (1828 to 1945)
Two years after the transfer of Swedish Pomerania to Prussia , the Prussian officer Theodor Alexander von Bismarck and Caroline Countess von Bohlen (1798-1858), the older daughter of Friedrich Ludwig , married on September 16, 1817 . On February 21, 1818 Theodor Alexander von Bismarck was from King Friedrich Wilhelm III. raised to the rank of count. After the death of his father-in-law in 1828, he took over the Carlsburg estate. This began the time of the Counts of Bismarck-Bohlen in the castle, which at that time was again in economic difficulties due to the Napoleonic wars.
From autumn 1838 to summer 1839 Otto von Bismarck often stayed at the castle during his service in the Pomeranian Jäger Battalion in Greifswald. On June 19, 1843, King Friedrich Wilhelm IV was a guest in Carlsburg. Ten years later he visited the palace again, this time accompanied by Alexander von Humboldt and Friedrich August Stüler . In 1856, Stüler designed the Steinfurth grave chapel for the Bismarck-Bohlen family in neighboring Steinfurth, which is now part of Karlsburg. With the death of his wife Caroline in 1858, Count Theodor von Bismarck-Bohlen became the sole owner of Gut Carlsburg in accordance with the joint will. He was followed by his son Friedrich Alexander Graf von Bismarck-Bohlen (1818-1894), whose brother Karl received the family's Altmark possessions as a result of the inheritance. After his death in 1878, Friedrich Alexander also took over his inheritance, but sold it in 1891 due to the distance to the Carlsburg estate. His successor was Friedrich Karl von Bismarck-Bohlen (1852-1901), who left military service on the occasion of the takeover of the estate in 1894 and moved from Schwedt to Carlsburg. Based on drawings by his wife, the iron rose gate was built in 1896, which is still on the front of the castle today and has become a symbol of the complex, the place and the institutions currently located here.
The last count at the castle was Fritz Ulrich von Bismarck-Bohlen (1884–1945), the son of Friedrich Carl. Since his father's brother had died in 1894, he took over the estate when he was underage. His mother Elisabeth Countess von Bismarck-Bohlen therefore managed it until her son came of age in 1905. Fritz Ulrich studied law, communal science and agriculture in Greifswald , Lausanne , Geneva , Halle and Leipzig and obtained his doctorate in law in 1912. From 1913 to 1914 he had the connecting wing between the two parts of the castle increased by one floor. Since he could not become a soldier due to health problems, he put himself in the service of the Order of St. John as a nurse in a field hospital during the First World War .
When the Nazis came to power in 1933, he resigned all honorary offices due to his proximity to the Confessing Church . He then lived very withdrawn and frugal. By selling forest property, he succeeded in significantly improving the estate's economic situation. During the Second World War in 1942, the art treasures of the University of Greifswald were relocated to Karlsburg Castle (which now had to be written with K instead of the French C ), including the Croÿ carpet and the rector's insignia. From 1943 Fritz Ulrich von Bismarck-Bohlen made the western part of the castle available to the children's clinic at the University of Greifswald for a ward for the treatment of children with tuberculosis, including part of the park as a playground. On April 28, 1945, the last owner of the estate put an end to his life himself. His eldest son Theodor had already died in the war on March 20, 1944, the younger son Achaz died on October 30, 1945 in a Soviet captivity. The rest of the family fled to West Germany in 1945, the property was expropriated without compensation as a result of the land reform in the Soviet occupation zone .
The Central Institute for Diabetes (1947 to 1990)
Immediately after the end of the war, the castle was initially used as a resettlement camp, a sick home and a provisional disease hospital. The historical library, consisting of around 4,000 volumes with some old and in part valuable works, was transferred to the library of the University of Greifswald around 1946/1947 and stored there in a makeshift store that was unusable for several decades. Most of the book inventory was brought back to the castle in 1985. From May 1947 the castle was a home for the social medical care of diabetics , initially with 15 beds and a small laboratory. From this three years later the Institute for Diabetes Research and Treatment developed , from which the Central Institute for Diabetes was created through extensive new buildings around the castle .
With the use of the castle as a medical facility of central importance in the entire German Democratic Republic (GDR), the population and economic structure of Karlsburg also changed fundamentally from an agricultural village to a place characterized by scientific research. The coat of arms of the town, which was changed on March 14, 1985, contains the Pomeranian griffin, taken from the coat of arms of the von Bohlen family, as regional symbolism and an ear of corn as a reference to the agricultural traditions, as well as the Aesculapian staff to symbolize the importance of medicine and science for the town. Around 70 percent of the local working population were employed in the central institute during this time.
Current condition
use
The castle has belonged to the state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania since 1990. It is administered by the University of Greifswald and used jointly by the successor facilities of the former central institute, which include a private clinic, two university institutes and a non-university research institute. In addition, the Karlsburg Culture Association and the Karlsburger Choir regularly organize concerts and other events in the palace. As part of the Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania Festival , some events take place in Karlsburg Castle.
In the castle there are several large portraits of members of the noble family who once lived here in the various baroque halls . In addition to the specialist library shared by the clinics and research facilities, which is located in part of the side wing and the basement, the historical library of the count's family is also kept in the castle. However, it is not open to the public. Nowadays the park is mainly used by its patients for recreation due to the close proximity of the Karlsburg Clinic.
architecture
With regard to its architectural features, the castle is shaped by the architecture of the Baroque . Due to the incomplete implementation of the original construction plans, it is designed asymmetrically. The corps de logis is accessible on the courtyard side via a (not original) simple staircase through a round-arched main entrance, which is decorated on both sides with neo-baroque lanterns and similar latticework. The central-high base is provided with three giebelbekrönten projections provided, the center of which protrudes three storeys in the high mansard roof, while the two outer two levels as stub wing with rounded elegant swing emerge and indicate a three wings. The complex has remained a fragment, as only the eastern side pavilion, with the same height as the central building, was realized, while the counterpart on the other side is missing. If the building had been completed according to the baroque plans, the second largest baroque palace in Pomerania would have been built after Schwerinsburg Palace (destroyed in 1945).
The corps de logis and the pavilion are connected by a long gallery, the roof of which was raised in 1913 and expanded with mansards, which obscures the original proportions of the structure, which can still be seen in the Duncker picture from the 1860s with the lower gallery building. On the courtyard side, an ugly, cube-like extension between the pavilion and the gallery also spoils the picture.
The building consists of three floors including the ground floor and has a basement . The total usable area is around 2,460 square meters and is distributed over around 140 rooms on all levels, including 100 rooms of different sizes on the ground floor, upper floor and attic and around 40 in the basement and basement. The roof is designed as a hipped roof and equipped with mansards and baroque chimneys . New buildings come close to the castle and crowd it on the courtyard side, while the park side, although partly overgrown and poorly maintained, still shows the original impression. The courtyard side is partially covered by disruptive vegetation.
Rose gate
Main entrance courtyard side
literature
- P. Wulfert: Karlsburg - a village and its institute. Karlsburg 1990
- E. Brauns: Karlsburg - From the past of a village. Karlsburg 2000
- B. Fabian (Hrsg.): Handbook of historical book collections in Germany, Handbook of historical book collections in Austria, Handbook of German historical book collections in Europe. Olms Neue Medien, Hildesheim 2003, ISBN 3-487-11711-8 ; Available online: Günter Kükenshöner (digital editing): Handbook of historical book collections in Germany, Austria and Europe . ; see entry on Greifswald University Library, Sections 1.28–1.29
- P. Heinke: Karlsburg and its owners. A historical-heraldic consideration. Heraldische Verlagsgruppe "Zum Greifen", self-published 2005
Web links
- Literature about Karlsburg Castle (Western Pomerania) in the state bibliography MV
- Material on Karlsburg Palace in the Duncker Collection of the Central and State Library Berlin (PDF; 209 kB)
- Cornelia Meerkatz and Eckhard Oberdörfer: Land wants to sell the baroque palace Karlsburg in: Ostsee-Zeitung from January 3, 2018.
Coordinates: 53 ° 58 ′ 13 ″ N , 13 ° 36 ′ 44 ″ E